Quote: A Horseradish @ 11th April 2015, 11:33 PM BST
GFN - You deserve to be congratulated for the above contribution because it is so spot on. No one should be in any doubt that BBT is way above (almost??) every sitcom in the 21st Century to date.
If I can pick out some of my favourite bits:
"The characters are nice! They are likeable. You feel for Raj and Howard just as you would for Corporal Jones and Pike.
There is warmth to it......Put downs there may be, but no real nastiness.
Above all tower the characters. Sheldon and Leonard are wonderful creations. Behind Sheldon's craziness lies an impish child, lost and vulnerable. Meanwhile, Leonard's capacity to convey his pain at living with Sheldon is boundless. Laurel and Hardy, The odd couple; it's all in there in nuances.
Without Penny being what she is, much of the comedy would simply not fly...... Bernadette and Amy only helped to make it bigger.......The reason it worked was once more, because they were proper characters.
The writers added pathos, but never went all 'Friends'. It isn't soap, nor is it 'comedy drama'. It remains pure sitcom.....The show's innocence also prevents the decline which befell 'Two and a half men'. It doesn't go blue. Instead it stays true to milking the central conflicts.
The characters are truly lovable and it has created some memorable moments. It is, to all avail, a classic comedy. I for one, will miss them when they're gone."
The only thing I'd say is that I never really did get "Frasier". It was always "Cheers" that did it for me.
Quote: Gussie Fink Nottle @ 12th April 2015, 12:25 AM BST
Embrace me, oh brother of mine!
I liked 'Cheers'. A great deal.
But I think 'Frasier' is generally seen as the step change.
I believe at its heart were the same main writers at first.
But 'Frasier' has a different feel to it.
There is a sense of something more clinical. Or perhaps more 'efficient' is a better word.
Also it seemed something that - at the time - simply had not existed before.
Perhaps it was a bigger writing team. Perhaps their production methods changed. I don't know. I'm guessing.
But it just seemed sharper, leaner than 'Cheers' and all which had gone before.
I still think the opening episode of 'Frasier' is so perfect, you could actually cut yourself on it.
I know it got very, very, very tired toward the end. But it seemed to mark a change in what American sitcom did.
One moved away from the Huxtables to something distinctly new.
I think 'Frasier' shares that credit with 'Seinfeld'.
However, once gone, nothing quite managed to recapture what 'Frasier' had had. That said, I thought I felt some reverberations in other shows.
But then, oh glorious day, along came 'The big bang theory'.
I felt, here was 'Frasier's illegitimate lovechild.
It started great and then just got better and better.
Of course at some point it began to run out of steam, but I think they've set a standard which will prove very hard to beat for many years to come.
Much like 'Frasier' did in its day.
Oddly, there has been absolutely nothing in UK sitcom which seems to have sought to benefit from 'The big bang theory's example.
It is as though we pretend that it does not exist.
You two should write a book together. 
